Sleepover
by Anna Marchen
Summary: Kurt's best friend when he was eight was Brittany, sweet, funny Brittany. One night Kurt has to stay at Brittany's while his dad has to go to the hospital to see his mom, and Brittany doesn't really understand what happened that night, but years later, she might, just a little bit. Because there's nothing which makes you feel like a little kid again like a sleepover.


_If you recognise it, it's not mine._

* * *

><p>Sleepovers were fun, Brittany decided, looking round the room set up with an extra bed. Sure, she'd never had one with a boy before, but it didn't seem that different to the one she had at Santana's house at her birthday. It wasn't her birthday, in fact her mom had woken Brittany up to ask her if she minded Kurt staying over. The door creaked open, and her mom walked in, leading her friend by the hand.<p>

"Hi Kurt!" Brittany chirped, waving at the little boy. Kurt ignored her, glancing up at her mom, one small hand clutching a scuffed purple blanket. Her mom reached down to hug him, but Kurt backed away, stumbling over a cushion and falling onto the rug. Brittany knelt down next to him.

"We can play My Little Pony, and Barbie, and, and we can do baking! We could make fairy cakes, right, mommy?"

Mrs Pierce smiled at her eight year old daughter, kneeling to take her by the shoulders.

"Britt-Britt, it's the middle of the night. I think that Kurt probably wants to go to sleep, right, Kurt?"

The boy nodded, stifling a yawn.

"Ok. Kurt, why don't you go get ready for bed? You know where the bathroom is, right?"

Kurt padded out of the room, hugging his blanket to himself. Brittany's mom looked carefully after him, before glancing back at her daughter.

"Brittany, sweetie, you need to be very nice to Kurt, ok?"

Brittany nodded, frowning slightly.

"Mommy, why's he here in the middle of the night?" Brittany asked, staring at her mom with big eyes. Her mom sighed, glancing quickly back to the door.

"Kurt's mommy isn't very well, sweetheart. Kurt's daddy needed to go to the hospital to see her, and he asked if we could look after Kurt for him, just for a bit," she said softly, pulling Brittany into a hug.

"But when Auntie Grace was sick and in hospital we only got to see her in the daytime."

Her mother was saved from having to answer by Kurt shuffling back into the room. He silently climbed onto the campbed, burrowing under the Toy Story patterned covers. Mrs Pierce gently pushed Brittany towards her own bed, tucking her under the covers. Kurt watched from behind his blanket, blue-green eyes blinking sleepily. Brittany's mom moved to tuck him in too, but he scrabbled away until only a tuft of brown hair showed on the pillow. She walked away, flicking Brittany's flower-shaped nightlight on, spilling a dim light through the room. Brittany turned on her side sleepily.

"Night-night, Kurt!" she whispered. Kurt didn't reply. Brittany closed her eyes, and went to sleep.

She woke up later, but before her mom came in and woke her up. It was still dark, and the house was very quiet, except for a quiet snuffling sound coming from the campbed across the rug. Brittany slipped out of bed and tiptoed across the floor, pausing by the campbed. She couldn't see her friend in the bed. Carefully, she patted the covers, frowning when she still couldn't find him.

"K-kurt?" she whispered fearfully, looking round the darkened room. Again, she heard the whimpers, and tentatively knelt down, peering under the campbed. The small boy was curled into a tiny ball, stifled sobs wracking his trembling frame. Unsure of what to do, Brittany hung back, until a particularly violent shudder sent Kurt wobbling into the campbed frame. Always rickety and slightly unstable, the bed collapsed- right on top of the child. Brittany gasped, her little hands scrabbling to pull the mess of canvas and plastic poles off Kurt. Fortunately, the bed was designed to be lightweight and she could tug it away, revealing the boy, curled up in his polka dotted pyjamas. Brittany patted his shoulder nervously. It was ice cold.

"Kurt?" she whispered, crawling round to face him. His eyes were tightly shut, and panicked whimpers were ringing through the otherwise silent room. Brittany gently wrapped her arms round him. He was tiny. She knew that he was shorter than her- he was the shortest person in class, except maybe Rachel- but he was really _skinny_ too. Brittany sat him up like a doll, careful in case she broke him. Kurt blinked sleepily, before his eyes shot open, wide and panicked. They locked onto Brittany's. Silently, the blonde girl offered a hand to Kurt and pulled him to his feet. He stood shakily, eyes scanning the dark room nervously.

"Your bed collapsed," Brittany said, gesturing. Kurt nodded, biting his lip. Brittany gestured to her own bed. "You can share mine, if you want?"

Kurt nodded again, eyes still flickering round the darkened room. Brittany led him over to her bed, tugging back the Cinderella covers. Kurt shuffled in reluctantly, curling back into a tiny ball. Brittany got back into bed, gripping her cuddly bear tightly. Everything was silent for a few minutes, and Brittany was just dozing back to sleep, when she heard a muffled, high-pitched scream.

"Kurt?" She rolled over, twitching back the cover. The little boy's eyes were wide and filled with tears. Brittany wrapped her arms around the smaller boy like her mom did when she was sad.

"Kurt, did you have a nightmare? I have nightmares sometimes, and my mom always comes and makes me feel better- Kurt? Don't cry, tell me what's wrong." Big tears were rolling down his face. As Brittany watched, he began to tremble, gulps and sobs tearing from his mouth. Brittany had never seen anyone cry like this before. Not even when Finn tripped over the slide and got a really big scrape on his arm during the summer.

_"M-mom! M-mommy!"_ Brittany pulled Kurt closer.

"Kurt, your mom can't come, remember? She's in the- Kurt, wait!"

Kurt had just slithered away from Brittany's arms, stumbling across the floor. He fell to his knees, scrabbling on the floor with his nails, still crying.

"Brittany, honey? Is everything ok?"

Brittany's mom popped her head round the door, flicking on the main light. Brittany ran to her, watching Kurt crawl to his scruffy purple blanket, lying crumpled a few feet away from the remains of the campbed. He hugged it close to himself, sobs still shaking his small frame. Mrs Pierce took in the scene, the collapsed campbed, the hysterical eight year old in the corner, her panicked daughter clinging to her hand. She headed toward Kurt, taking his shaking hand in hers.

"Kurt, are you going to calm down a little, maybe go back to sleep until the morning?"

He burrowed into her side, beyond shyness or reluctance, just seeking as much human comfort as possible. The phone rang, pealing out in the middle of the night. Mrs Pierce beckoned Brittany over. She knelt down, and gently transferred Kurt's arms to her, before answering the phone. Brittany couldn't hear her mom, and Kurt had almost crawled onto her lap, shivering and whimpering, so she dragged the Toy Story duvet out from the campbed and wrapped it round him. He sighed sadly.

"Nightmares go away, see Kurt? Everything's fine. Ooh, we're both awake now, we could do baking! I know how to make strawberry cupcakes, sort of." Kurt shook his head, a hint of a smile flickering over his face. Brittany beamed back at him, and kept talking.

"Or we could make cherry ones, or chocolate, or banana, or raspberry, or Coca-Cola!"

"Coca-Cola cupcakes?" Kurt asked, frowning slightly. Brittany shrugged.

"You get Coca-Cola popsicles. And drinks. And Haribo. Ooh! Haribo cupcakes!"

Kurt giggled softly. Brittany grinned, pleased that she had distracted him. Then her mom walked back in. She looked really sad. Silently, she reached out and picked Kurt up, cover and all. She whispered something softly, and the smile fell from his face. He nodded firmly, and Mrs Pierce carried him out of the room.

"Mom? Kurt? Where are you going?"

"Go back to sleep, Brittany. I'll be back in the morning. It was Kurt's daddy on the phone, he wants Kurt to come and see him. I'm just going to drive him over and make sure everything's ok."

Brittany, being eight years old and sleepy, waved to Kurt before her mom leads him out of the door. Her last thought before going to sleep is of Haribo cupcakes.

"Maybe we can give some to Kurt's mommy," she mumbled drowsily to herself.

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><p>Sleepovers were still fun, Brittany decided. Especially with lots of people. The rest of the New Directions girls were scattered around the basement, bags of makeup, DVDs and popcorn on the floor. Kurt came down the stairs in a set of navy silk pyjamas, closing the door.<p>

"Dad says that we have to keep relatively quiet, otherwise he'll confiscate my bedazzler, but aside from that, we can do whatever we want!"

The girls instantly started throwing around suggestions.

"Makeover!"

"Do we have any good films?"

"I brought 'The Time Traveller's Wife!"

"Manicures?"

"Truth or Dare!"

This was met with approval from the group, so they arranged themselves into a rough circle. Mercedes went first.

"Uh, ok. Rachel, truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Do you like Finn?"

Rachel turned pink.

"Pass," she said primly.

"Oh, _hell_ to the no, no passes, agreed?"

"Fine, then. I might..." Mercedes whooped in triumph, as Quinn glowered at Rachel.

"Tina, pay up! I told you so!"

Rachel sighed dramatically.

"Ok, Santana, truth or dare?"

"Dare!"

"Um, ok. I dare you to...to..." Santana smirked. "I dare you to kiss Kurt!"

"What? _No!"_ Kurt screeched. Santana shot a death glare at Rachel, before grudgingly pecking Kurt on the cheek. Kurt shuffled away from her, also glaring at Rachel.

"Fine. Hummel. Truth or Dare?"

"Truth." Santana was likely to pick a pretty cruel dare, and he wasn't going to risk it.

"Ok, what's with that purple blanket you carry round with you in your bag at school? I mean, that thing is manky. Is it like a security blanket or something?"

Kurt knew that Santana was just annoyed about the dare- probably- but he was still hurt.

"It was my mother's."

Mercedes frowned at him.

"What do you mean, was?"

Kurt sighed, looking down at his hands.

"She died when I was eight. It's kinda all I have left of her now." His eyes flicked to Brittany's for a split second, and she saw the eight year old boy once more, tear streaks striping his face as he giggled about Haribo cupcakes with her. Brittany crawled over and wrapped her arms round him, and he hesitated for a moment before leaning against her briefly. Then he straightened up and smiled weakly at the group. Brittany kept her arms round his shoulders, and he let her.

Later that night, while everyone was sleeping, Brittany was woken up by quiet sniffles. She tiptoed over to Kurt's bed, and sat on the edge.

"Kurt?" she whispered. The countertenor rolled over to look at her.

"Are you ok?" she asked, running her finger along his cheekbones. They were wet. Kurt nodded. Brittany frowned at him.

"Ok people don't cry," she said firmly. Kurt shushed her, but it was already too late.

"It's not time to get up yet, is it?" someone muttered, using their phone as a torch. The light soon woke the others, and soon Kurt and Brittany were the sole focus of attention.

"What's going on?"

Kurt buried his face in his pillow. Brittany smiled, patting his shoulder gently. Kurt shivered under her hand, and Brittany couldn't help but say something comforting, in her spaced-out way, partly to placate Mercedes, and partly to soothe the boy who still seemed to be eight years somehow.

"It's ok. It's just a sleepover."


End file.
